Writing an XML report driver and routine

Generating XML output

To produce an XML report, initiate the report with the START REPORT instruction followed by the TO XML HANDLER clause, to specify the SAX document handler that will process the XML report output:

START REPORT order_report 
      TO XML HANDLER om.XmlWriter.createFileWriter("orders.xml")

In the report routine, use either PRINT or PRINTX statement to generate XML output. Each PRINT or PRINTX instruction will produce a <Print/> XML element with <Item/> child elements containing the values and data types. The PRINTX instruction is equivalent to PRINT, except that you can specify the name of the <Print/> XML element with the NAME clause:

REPORT order_report(r_ord)
  ...
  FORMAT
    ON EVERY ROW
      PRINTX NAME = order r_ord.*
  ...
END REPORT

Example of XML output produced by the PRINTX NAME = order r_ord.* instruction:

<Print name="order">
   <Item name="r_ord.ord_id" type="INTEGER" value="1001" isoValue="1001"/>
   <Item name="r_ord.ord_cust" type="INTEGER" value="101" isoValue="101"/>
   <Item name="r_ord.ord_date" type="DATE" value="11/21/2017" isoValue="2017-11-21"/>
</Print>

Nested XML reports

If a new report is started with START REPORT instruction inside a REPORT routine producing XML, and if there is no destination specified in the START REPORT instruction, the sub-report inherits the XML output target of the parent, and sub-report nodes will be merged into the parent XML output:

REPORT order_report(r_ord)
  ...
  FORMAT
    ON EVERY ROW
      PRINTX NAME = order r_ord.*
      -- Merges sub-report output to parent report XML handler
      START REPORT sub_report
      FOR ...
          OUTPUT TO REPORT sub_report(...)
      END FOR
      FINISH REPORT sub_report
  ...
END REPORT

API for global XML handler

The fgl_report_set_document_handler() built-in function can be used to specify a general XML handler, for START REPORT instructions which do not use the TO XML HANDLER clause:

MAIN
  ...
  CALL fgl_report_set_document_handler( om.XmlWriter.createFileWriter("orders.xml") )
  ...
  START REPORT order_report -- Produces XML output to "orders.xml"
  ...
END MAIN

The fgl_report_set_document_handler() function is supported for backward compatibility, it is recommended to use START REPORT … TO XML HANDLER instead.